


What a Difference a Day Makes.

by springburn



Series: Dr Who mini fics and prompts [5]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Bonding, Caring, F/F, F/M, Interspecies Relationship(s), Love, Sickfic, whouffaldi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-04
Updated: 2015-09-04
Packaged: 2018-04-18 23:54:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,297
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4724951
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/springburn/pseuds/springburn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Doctor and Clara have returned to Victorian London a year after their previous visit to the Paternoster Gang.........</p>
            </blockquote>





	What a Difference a Day Makes.

**Author's Note:**

> This was a prompt from petersgal :  
> Prompt..so how about its a year from the incident with strax etc,and the dr and clara are invited to tea with gang..how are they doing i wonder??again,your choice...have fun my friend.
> 
> I wanted this to be more in keeping with the progression of the Doctor and Clara's relationship from the POV of the programme. Season 8 through to the Last Christmas, and how it may carry on into Season 9........which takes place after this little story.

WHAT A DIFFERENCE A DAY MAKES.

Paternoster Square was wreathed in November mist.  
Horses trotted by, their breath coming in clouds around their muzzles.  
The shadow of St Paul's loomed through the darkness, sightless gargoyles glaring down to the shrouded alleyways.  
Hansom cabs clattered along the cobbles, it was turf out time at the nearby Inn.  
Noisy customers swaying along the pavement, the sound of raucous singing punctuating the night.  
Madame Vastra emerged from her coach, her veil low over her face.  
Jenny followed her, warming her hands inside a fur muff, which hung on a silken rope around her neck.  
Seated on the buck board, Strax urged the horse onwards, towards the mews at the back of the house, where the carriage was stowed and the horse stabled.  
"Well, that was a successful nights work." Vastra pulled her fingers from her black kid gloves, one by one, and laid them aside.  
"Some wine I think." She smiled. "For our guests."

Vvoorrrrrpppppp. Vvvvvooooorrrrrrrpppppp. 

"How do you do that?" Jenny laughed, "how do you know.....each time!"  
The Silurian chuckled.  
"Call it my lizard sense." She replied, "My tongue tastes the air......the Tardis exudes a scent."  
The time machine materialised in the courtyard. Briefly fading in and out of view.  
Seconds later the Doctor and Clara emerged.

"A very good evening my friends!"  
Smiles all round, hugs and greetings.  
Clara always loved visiting The Gang.  
"Tea? Or would you prefer wine, to keep out the cold." Madame smiled as she ushered her guests into the house.  
"Wine, I think," the Doctor rubbed his hands together, and shivered slightly.  
"Goodness.....surely you're not cold Doctor? You never feel the cold." Jenny remarked, eyebrows arched.  
"He's going down with something. But he won't admit it." Clara took his arm.  
Vastra and Jenny exchanged glances.  
The Doctor huffed, in annoyance.  
Then suddenly swayed visibly, clutching at the wall.  
Both women grabbed him firmly.  
"See? You're not well."  
Clara turned to Vastra and whispered conspiratorially,  
"This is why I suggested coming here.....knowing you'd always make us welcome.....he needs to rest, but he won't have it.....keeps insisting he's fine."  
Madame nodded.....  
Took charge.  
"Come along Doctor, up the stairs with you. Into the room for sleeping in!"  
The Timelord protested vehemently.  
"Doctor! Do as you are told!" 

oOo

Laying on his back.  
Hands resting on top of the coverlet, across his chest.  
Head tossing in his delirium, murmuring in his dreams.  
Clara sat by the bedside.  
Watching over him, refusing all admonishments to rest herself.  
Her thoughts returning to when her Doctor......HER Doctor, as she now always referred to him, first became HER Doctor.  
Except he hadn't been then.......his former bow-tie self had been HER Doctor, but she never loved the predecessor the way she loved this person laying in the bed before her now.  
She remembered the words he'd used then......as he rested fitfully post regeneration.  
'Alone now, can't see me, doesn't see me.....'  
She'd imagined him speaking of the dinosaur, but now she knew, he was speaking of her.........Clara.......HIS Clara.  
She was always HIS Clara, for him that had never changed.  
How he'd struggled during those early times.  
Barely able to stand her touch, raw, sensitive in the extreme, masking it under a veil of harshness, belligerence and indifference.  
Until suddenly, after the Dream Crabs, something changed.  
He'd lost 62 years......and she'd grown old, and he realised......realised what she meant to him, how deep it went. That time was wasting.  
That was a year ago.  
Just before their fateful visit to Gorinthia. When she thought she'd blown it.  
Ruined their friendship whilst under the influence of the Gorinthian dart drug.  
It happened last time they'd left the Paternoster Gang in fact. 

oOo

He stirred. Thrashing. Cried out.  
"CLARA! CLARA! "  
She moved to sit on the edge of the bed, took his hand in her own, smoothed a damp cloth over his fevered brow.  
"Shhhhh! Doctor. It's okay. I'm here. I'm right here."  
He opened his glazed eyes.......scanned the room wildly.  
"Where am I? Clara?"  
"Hush now! You're at Paternoster Square. And you've been unwell. Madame and I have been taking care of you. Jenny and Strax too."  
Confusion clouded his face.  
"Unwell? How long?"  
"Since we got here. Three days ago. You collapsed. You were ill before we arrived, but you insisted you were fine. So I suggested we came here."  
"I.......I don't remember."  
"You've been out of it.......a fever. You needed to rest Doctor. You were exhausted. Wrung out."  
He furrowed his brow as if wracking his brain for the memories.  
"Madame thinks you were suffering from nervous exhaustion. Your body couldn't take any more. Something had to give."  
The Doctor tried to sit up, but she gently dissuaded him.  
"Lay back. Please. Don't try to move." Her hand stroked across his temple and down his cheek.  
"Just rest Doctor, you'll be fine in a day or two, Madame says."  
He leaned his face into her touch, letting his eyes fall shut.  
Breathing deep and long.  
The door behind her opened silently.  
Jenny entered carrying a cup and saucer.  
"Madame thought you'd like this. It's a restorative tea. You should rest Clara, one of us can watch him for a while, let you sleep."  
"No Jenny, I have to be here, I have to stay with him. I just have to."  
Handing her the cup, Jenny squeezed her shoulder.  
"I know, Clara. I know." 

oOo

Strax stood at the parlour window gazing out into the frosty air.  
The small garden was crisp and sugar coated, glistening in the winter sunlight.  
Madame Vastra came and stopped by his side.  
"Look at them." He remarked, nodding towards the gravel walkway. There he could see the Doctor, walking slowly, hunched slightly, hesitant, but gaining strength......  
.......holding tightly to Clara's hand, she with her other hand under his elbow, guiding him.  
As they watched, the pair laughed together at some private joke, and the Doctor leaned down, placing a tender kiss on her lips. Her arms came up and around his neck, pulling him towards her.  
"By the Goddess! They've come a long way in a year." Vastra smiled.  
"Baby steps." Jenny added, joining them by the casement.  
"It'll take him time," Madame replied, sagely, "he has an awful long way to come, it's not easy for him, but he's learning. Letting himself love, that's hard for him. Frightening even. But he'll get there. I have now doubt."  
"Clara will get him there," Jenny said softly, " she's devoted to him. Always was if you ask me!"  
"Undoubtedly my dear! But sometimes we have to be patient, do we not? To him one day is like a year. A lifetime. He has all of Time.....she does not. Still these things cannot be rushed."  
"I'm glad for them." Strax responded, as he turned away. " the Doctor needs someone, and Clara is right for him."

The pair were returning to the house, still with arms linked.  
"Well.....are you feeling better Doctor? Rested?"  
"I am, thanks to you all," he glanced from one to the other of the three, eyes glistening.  
"And thanks to my wonderful nurse here." He pulled Clara close to his side, his arm wrapped around her shoulder.  
Clara gazed up at him, beaming.  
"Come and eat with us before you leave......a little celebration."  
Vastra lead the way.  
Seated around the table, Jenny to her right, the Doctor and Clara on her left, Strax standing at her elbow, she raised her champagne flute.  
"A toast," she cried, "To friendship." Their glasses clinked together.  
The Doctor raised his own in return.  
" I have a toast too." They turned towards him expectantly.  
"To love." He said. The glasses clinked again.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you as always for the prompt. Hope you enjoy the story!!


End file.
